The invention relates to containers for storing stacks of pictures, and relates particularly to containers of a type having a display window at which a single picture can be presented. A container of this general type is described in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,242,820, issued Jan. 6, 1981.
One known type of container for storing pictures is a twin-container wherein a common housing symmetrically holds two identical drawers which, independently of each other, can each house a stack of pictures, the uppermost picture of each stack being presented at a respective display window. Each stack has a respective elastic system to serve as a biasing device. When one drawer is withdrawn from its housing shelf, the biasing device for that drawer is deactivated without effecting the biasing device of the other drawer. A partition separates the two drawers.
The patent referred to above discloses a great number of further containers for pictures which can also be considered as twin or multiple containers. Several embodiments of containers disclosed in that patent have a biasing device, comprising a spring system for adapting the container to hold stacks comprising different numbers of pictures. Frequently, the outer container members, such as the housing, lid, and window, are made of plastic while the spring systems generally comprise metallic springs. As a matter of economics, these materials require different methods of manufacture. The spring systems must then be assembled with the plastic members in a separate manufacturing step. Such assembly is relatively expensive. Plastic materials of moderate cost have only limited resilience.
It is an object of the present invention to provide container for pictures that does not use spring systems for biasing devices.